The best laid plans
by Phoenix.G.Fawkes
Summary: Even if she can see the lines of destiny, Angela knows there are obstacles that can always get in the way of fate’s designs – and her job is to get rid of them at all costs, even if those obstacles are her own child and grandaughter.


**Disclaimer:** 'Heroes' belongs to Tim Kring, who should pay his writers already.

**Rating: **G

**Characters:** Angela, Peter, Claire.

**Prompts:** #20. Work for heroes50 and # 37 Angela sees Claire and Peter talking together at the Petrelli mansion for heroesfest.

**Spoilers:** Up to 1x23 'How to Stop an Exploding Man'

**Summary:** Even if she can see the lines of destiny, Angela knows there are obstacles that can always get in the way of fate's designs – and her job is to get rid of them at all costs, even if those obstacles are her own child and grandaughter.

Music: 'Hang' by Matchbox 20

* * *

**The best laid plans**

Angela Petrelli can see the lines of destiny lying before her like the tangled threads of a tapestry still unformed. It takes time and effort to separate the threads and put them in their right place, and sometimes the threads won't untangle and she can't see the whole picture, the paths of fate becoming misty and clouded to her own eyes. It is not unlike a blurred painting, in which is impossible to differentiate the colours from the shadows and shapes are no longer recognizable, a map with no discernible North.

She is not capable of seeing the future, at least not like fake gypsies in cheap fairs claim to do. She doesn't see all events unfold in a chronological, cinematographic fashion – most of the time she doesn't see anything at all. She gets glimpses, scraps of pictures, scents, feelings, that allow her to put together fate's puzzle and anticipate it's next move.

Her visions are often inaccurate, affected by her feelings and fears, subjective and unreliable by nature, but she has learnt to suffocate her own emotions, she has practiced numbness until she became capable of reading those visions properly, until she could rearrange them into something that made sense, somtehing apprehensible, useful. It took her years of patient practice until her efforts proved to be worthwhile and now she is certain that she can understand the grand scheme of things from the glimpses fate has handed her.

She can see the lines of destiny before her, but no power can show her the end of all roads, the consequences of every action. She knows her ability is limited, but she's learnt to make the most of it and she is confident that she's seeing the big picture, that the right path has been revealed to her after years of guesswork, conjectures and failed attempts. She has finally found her place and she will make sure that everyone else finds their own, like pawns and knights placed on a chessboard.

However, she also knows that the best laid plans can go awry, she knows that unexpected obstacles can get in the way of fate's designs. Her job is to get rid of those obstacles, to make destiny unfold as it's supposed to.

Even if it kills her.

Bouncy, golden curls that have no place in a family of dark, straight hair; bright green eyes that clash against the browns and icy blues she knows, a girly voice that rises above the house's quiet whispers. She doesn't belong here, she never did no matter what her DNA might say, blood is not always thick enough to create ties that truly bind. Angela has always known this and is determined to take the girl as far away from here as possible. She tells the world and herself that she's doing this for the girl's own safety, but deep down she's always suspected the truth. This girl, this insignificant child that cannot know anything of the world, is a menace to all Angela has been working for all these years.

She is an intruder, an outsider, but above all that she's a threat to Angela's carefully laid plans. Many would probably laugh at such notion. How could a mere girl, a cheerleader for Heaven's sake, interfere with the grand scheme of things? How could she, so unaware of destiny, ignorant of what a calling meant, foil fate's designs?

Angela doesn't laugh. But then, Angela has always been able to see further than most people and she sees what the girl could become if she lets her. She sees the damage the girl is already causing, the fissures she's producing in the strong structure that took Angela decades to build. The girl is dangerous to her plans, so she must be gone.

But as she walks out of the study and sees them both by the stairs, their heads together, the gun exchanging hands, she fears it's already too late.


End file.
